Module 1: Why has misfortune not been eradicated

This module covers

Charity failures

Government and ineffective action.

Medical research and the battle for funding, accuracy and openness

Charitable foundations not so charitable after all

Unsafe at any speed, the battle for car safety

Charity failures

They may mean well but many charities do not independently and thoroughly test to see if their programs are effective. To illustrate this, consider three points, one the popular intervention microfinance, providing small loans to the poor to help them start businesses. Numerous studies have actually shown very limited benefits if any.

Consider also that of all of the charities evaluated by the charity evaluator, GiveWell, since 2007, currently only 3 are recommended as being good enough to warrant a recommendation. Finally the issue of clean water. It has been assumed that providing clean drinking water would be a successful way to end diarrheal diseases. Yet, two high quality studies have actually shown this is not to be the case.

Donors can play a role in the effectiveness of charities because the things that charities most need to operate like good back office operations offering higher wages to hire the best staff and fundraising expenses are often disliked by donors who do not want to see their donations covering administration and fundraising costs. So more support for this expenses could see an improvement in charity programs

So as a result of all this, of the estimated 300 billion dollars a year donated by Americans alone a considerable portion of it is going toward programs that are not very effective.

Government and ineffective action

The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy has pointed out that despite the numerous government programs to improve educational outcomes in the USA, there has not been much improvement. To illustrate, despite an estimated 90% increase in public educational spending {adjusted for inflation} over the last 40 years, the reading and math achievement of 17 year olds has not really changed.

This means that a huge amount of funds being allocated to education {and other programs} by the government are going to programs that are not very effective. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/applying-evidence-to-social-programs/?_r=0

It should also be noted that a fair amount of those in need to do not access or claim the government benefits they are entitled to, undermining even the best programs. http://newamerica.net/publications/policy/left_on_the_table http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/mar/20/millions-tax-credits-low-incomer-earners-left-tabl/

Medical research and the battle for cures effectiveness and openness

Although the complexity of diseases is one reason we have not found a cure for more diseases there are also other more human reasons.

Medical research findings are often put behind pay walls meaning researchers and institutions with limited resources can’t get access to it. This has resulted in universities for example boycotting certain medical journals who refuse to reduce prices.

The raw data of medical papers is often not released meaning that there is no way to really double check the accuracy of the conclusions presented in the papers and this has been found to be a serious issue that can lead researches and donors to waste time pursing the wrong thing.

The often one-off peer review system that is supposed to monitor medical studies to ensure they are correct is often flawed.

To illustrate, one pharmaceutical company reviewed 53 landmark studies they were relying on for the development of their medicines and found that only 6 were accurate.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20131027,0,1228881.column#axzz2iwOvmZjD

Of the leading causes of death in the developing world such as diarrhea it is not the lack of medical breakthroughs but the lack of access to existing medical treatments such as oral rehydration therapies that is the issue.

The disproportionate funding arrangements play a role as well on why some cancers continue to have almost zero survival rates. Brian cancer for example is the leading cause of cancer related death among multiple age groups including children in Australia yet receives a much smaller share of cancer related research funding.

The lack of translational funding to actually turn ideas into real medical products or services that will save lives is also neglected. http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2012/04/can-australia-afford-to-fund-translational-research/

Charitable foundations not so charitable

Having the resources to scale up effective programs is of course important and one would expect charitable foundations to be willing to provide these funds. In the US however a proportion of foundations only allocate the 5% a year of their resources as required by law resulting in them locking up billions of dollars, used more to preserve the foundations themselves as opposed to helping the community. Some foundation that are spend a lot and quickly, like the Ivy Foundation, have actually been questioned by some despite applauded.

Unsafe at Any Speed: Car safety and those against it

The famous Ford Pinto Case showed a car company ignoring its own safety crash tests and refused to put a plastic sheet between the bumper and fuel tank {that would have cost less than $20} resulting in deaths from the explosions that occurred when the cars were rear ended. It illustrates how financial decisions can get in the way of doing the right thing, how a culture of a company {or charity} can cause harm and how the management team's direction plays a significant role in the good or bad done.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1977/09/pinto-madness

Assessment 1:

To write down as many of the impediments to tackling social ills that you can recall.

Assessment 2:

Read the following Wikipedia article about the book Unsafe at Any Speed with particular attention given to the information referring to the culture/stylists that got in the way of safety and the criticisms section of the book and steps and think about or write about, what steps you would take to ensure the culture of a company or charity is about helping not harming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed


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